I have a LED fixture and was wondering about programming it. It has 3 light settings white, blue, and magenta. Each color can be programmed to different intensities ranging from 0% to 100% six separate times throughout the day. What would be the best ratio to optimize coral colors and growth. I've noticed that coral on display at the fish store look great, but are under mostly blue light. Should I set mine like that as well, or do the corals need a better ratio of light for growth?
Lighting question
- Thread starter Danny N
- Start date
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Yes you are absolutely on the right track. it Does get a bit complicated.
Sorry for the cut and paste........
Rather than settings. Heres some theory. Target the corals you have and would like to have in your tank. Many corals are High light corals many are med and low.
Higher light corals like a brighter and less blue more full spectrum light. Corals usually who prefer lower light prefer more blue, as the deeper you get in the sea the bluer light gets.
Many corals will adapt to the in between but the highs just dont like low and the lows just dont like high.
You light will produce GREAT spectrum and you can adjust its color to imitate deeper and shallower lighting conditions (as you get familiar with the light you will see a correlation there id bet).
So lets talk about intensity. I use a LUX meter to test intensity.($15 on amazon or free app if you dont mind holding your phone over a tank of saltwater.)
With a new light I would measure the intensity in lux at the top of the water at full power. I would suspect you will get 35,000 to 50,000 lux.
At the surface of the ocean(SPS corals) the light is 60 to 80,000+ lux. So if you have 50,000 lux you can very likely grow SPS quite well near the top of the rocks, and everything else down to the sand bed quite well too. Really low light corals may not like it.
If your light at full is only 16 to 25,000 lux of intensity at the top you probably wont be able to grow those high light corals and Id wager many zoas wont do well on the sand bed.
By knowing what lighting conditions you can provide you can now choose corals that match those conditions. Just like your water parameters.
If you use a par meter and use the same technique it will produce the same results. Par calculates intensity and usable spectrum.
Knowing just a little bit about where the coral actually come from really can help in those choices too.
Light acclimation is a real thing so keep that in mind. The LFS probably uses way too little light so you don't want to blast them. So creating a an acclimation mode would be cool and then ramp up to what you had.
Personally I would always set my expensive light to ramp up to its highest point and work from there.Unless you really love low light corals.
The sun&sky is 80,000 to 120,ooo lux and the highest par is 2,000. its likel'y you wont hit those. But your Maxima clam might be happy if you did.
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/ai-prime-light.234002/#post-2728940
Sorry for the cut and paste........
Rather than settings. Heres some theory. Target the corals you have and would like to have in your tank. Many corals are High light corals many are med and low.
Higher light corals like a brighter and less blue more full spectrum light. Corals usually who prefer lower light prefer more blue, as the deeper you get in the sea the bluer light gets.
Many corals will adapt to the in between but the highs just dont like low and the lows just dont like high.
You light will produce GREAT spectrum and you can adjust its color to imitate deeper and shallower lighting conditions (as you get familiar with the light you will see a correlation there id bet).
So lets talk about intensity. I use a LUX meter to test intensity.($15 on amazon or free app if you dont mind holding your phone over a tank of saltwater.)
With a new light I would measure the intensity in lux at the top of the water at full power. I would suspect you will get 35,000 to 50,000 lux.
At the surface of the ocean(SPS corals) the light is 60 to 80,000+ lux. So if you have 50,000 lux you can very likely grow SPS quite well near the top of the rocks, and everything else down to the sand bed quite well too. Really low light corals may not like it.
If your light at full is only 16 to 25,000 lux of intensity at the top you probably wont be able to grow those high light corals and Id wager many zoas wont do well on the sand bed.
By knowing what lighting conditions you can provide you can now choose corals that match those conditions. Just like your water parameters.
If you use a par meter and use the same technique it will produce the same results. Par calculates intensity and usable spectrum.
Knowing just a little bit about where the coral actually come from really can help in those choices too.
Light acclimation is a real thing so keep that in mind. The LFS probably uses way too little light so you don't want to blast them. So creating a an acclimation mode would be cool and then ramp up to what you had.
Personally I would always set my expensive light to ramp up to its highest point and work from there.Unless you really love low light corals.
The sun&sky is 80,000 to 120,ooo lux and the highest par is 2,000. its likel'y you wont hit those. But your Maxima clam might be happy if you did.
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/ai-prime-light.234002/#post-2728940
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mcarroll
10K Club member
+1 for getting a [HASHTAG]#lux[/HASHTAG] [HASHTAG]#meter[/HASHTAG] and everything else said above.
One complimentary thought: The corals you pick, with only rare exceptions, are going to be pretty adaptable - once you meet their minimums they are pretty easy to please. You can more or less set that light to any color you like and they will be happy, as long as there isn't too much intensity.
Note: "Any color you like" is much more likely to have too much light than too little when being set just by eye. Using a meter, there should be no surprises like that either way!
One complimentary thought: The corals you pick, with only rare exceptions, are going to be pretty adaptable - once you meet their minimums they are pretty easy to please. You can more or less set that light to any color you like and they will be happy, as long as there isn't too much intensity.
Note: "Any color you like" is much more likely to have too much light than too little when being set just by eye. Using a meter, there should be no surprises like that either way!
